Affleck Apologizes for 'Unprofessional Environment' on Movie Set

In this Aug. 3, 2018, photo, actor Casey Affleck poses for a portrait at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles to promote his upcoming film "The Old Man & the Gun," in theaters on Sept. 28. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)In this Aug. 3, 2018, photo, actor Casey Affleck poses for a portrait at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles to promote his upcoming film "The Old Man & the Gun," in theaters on Sept. 28. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

(Newser)
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Casey Affleck has been mostly absent from the public eye for the past year, but in the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements—and with a new film coming out this fall—he is for the first time addressing lingering questions about earlier sexual harassment allegations. The 42-year-old actor, producer, and director is taking responsibility for the "unprofessional" atmosphere on the set of 2010's I'm Still Here that led to civil lawsuits from two women who worked on the film, the AP reports. "It was an unprofessional environment ... the buck had to stop with me being one of the producers and I have to accept responsibility for that," says Affleck.

"I contributed to that unprofessional environment and I tolerated that kind of behavior from other people and I wish that I hadn't," Affleck says. He adds: "I behaved in a way and allowed others to behave in a way that was really unprofessional. And I'm sorry." Affleck says he's been learning a lot in the past few years—enough to know that he should be listening to the conversation instead of trying to lead it. "In this business women have been underrepresented and underpaid and objectified and diminished and humiliated and belittled in a bazillion ways," he says. "And no one was really making too much of a fuss about it, myself included, until a few women with the kind of courage and wisdom to stand up and say, 'You know what? Enough is enough,'" he says. (Affleck opted out of presenting the best actress award at this year's Oscars.)